Art of smelting ore.



' N0.`ss7,974.

UNITED T OFFICE.-

ALFRED s'rEINBART, or PITTSBURG, PnNNsYLvANrA, AssIGNcR or ONE-HALF 'ro Grone?.

" nicoLLARD, oF'cLAiRToN, PENNSYLVANI ART' or sMEL'rrNe can.

Speciiication of Letters Patent.

Patented may. 19, loos.

To all whom 'it may concern.

Be it `known that I, ALFRED STEINART, residing.- at Pittsburg, in the county of Allegheny and State of Pennsylvania, a citizen of the United States,l have invented or discovered a certain new and useful Improve- I improvement the following is a specification.`

ment in the Art of Smelting Ore; of which he air forced under pressure into blast furnaces, conta-ins at all times a considerable percentage of water'vapor, which is decomposed in the. furnace with the consequent absorption of a large amount of heat. vIf the percentage of Waterl vapor was constant, the oss dueto the absorption ofheatvvqould not b e serious, bu-t as the amountof watervapor varies Within wide limits and the changes occur rapidly, the absorption of heat -due to Idecomposition which -is proportional to the amountY of water. decomposed Would cause changes in the working of the furnace, unless provision is made to maintain uniform Work? lng. As for example when a rapid rise in the percentage of water occurs, there will be a proportional increase in the amount of heat absorbed in decomposing 'the water and a consequent chilling of the furnace and production of inferior metal. `Hence provision is made for the maintenance of a reserve of rheat, which may be employed when the percentage of moisture increases; This reserve.' of heat may be obtained either bythe use'` ofv an excess `of cokelin thev furnace or by maintaining thehot blastv stoves at a higher temperature-than 'normally required in smelting and tempering the heated air by cold air introduced into the blast by a 'by-pass, between the stoves and furnace.- When' an excess of moisturerequires more`heat in the furnace,l the flow ofv cold air is reduced. As

,this reserve, in Whatever formit may be provided, must be suiiiciently largel to compensate for the greatest absorption which may occur, frolnthe cause stated, thereis a constant Waste of a large amount of fuel tc provide for a contingency which may last for a fevr hours only, and may not occur again for several days. l

The invention-described herein has for its lobject the reduction o f the percentage of the Water vapor and its maintenance at a substantially uniformy point.

The invention is hereinafter more fully described and claimed.

.In the accompanying drawings for` ,a rpart of this speciication, Figure 1 is an e evation showing a blast furnace, stoves and a condensing apparatus with 'suitable connec# tions between, such parts or elements; 'Figi 2 is a sectional elevation on an enlarged scale of the condenser, Fig. 3y is a sectional detail lview. of 'a portion of thecondenser; ,F ig. 4 is a diagram showing approximately the variation from month to month-:of moisture in "the atmosphereA and lalso indicating ap'- proximately as regards removal of moisture of my im )roved method. v i

Itis Weill known that agiven,l volume of air as a cubic foot, at a given temperature, as

" seventy degrees (70) Fahr. Q can contain only a definite amount of Water vapor, as eight' grains'. of air be lowered to ifty degrees' (5 about one-half, the Water vapor -will densed. Or if a given volume of air, astwo cubic' feet at seventy degrees (70) Fahr. b'e compressed into aspace of one cubic foot, andthe temperature'of the compressed air If the temperature of this quantity 0 Fahr.

be conr be reduced to lseventy degrees, one-half of',

the sixteen grains of the Water vapor contained by the air prior to compression and cooling, will becondensed.' If the Atemperature of this compressed alir'be further reduced say to fifty degrees (50) Fahr. a 'further condensation of Water vapor willv occur and the amount of water'v'ap'or reduced to four grains, lor -two grains per .cubic foot at atmospheric pressure. I

In the practice of my invention the air is forced through a condenser, the hot.- blast stoves, and the charge in the furnace. The

'resistance presented by the stoves and the charge inthe furnace (principally the latter) to the passage of the air amounts to about iifte'en pounds per square inch( In other words the air must be subjected to a pressure of about fifteen pounds per square inch to insure a proper flow thereof through the furnace. This pressure is suiiicient to reduce the voiume of airone half and if the heatd-ue to compression be removed, and suitable provision is made for theseparation of the condensed vapor, a large percentage of the water vapor 1n the air prior to com ression is extracted. The condenser throug i which the' air passes on its way to the furnace aiiords a means for cooling the compressed air not only to atmospheric temperature butl pression, is removed.

also considerably below atmospheric temperature, so that a still larger percentage of the vapor contained in the air before com- While any suitablecooling medium can be employed in the condenser, l have found that by introducing water from any natural source as a lake, river, well, etc., in connection with the amount of compression described, tlie water vapor in the air can be reduced as low as is practically necessary and maintained at a practically uniform amount.

supplying the cooling The employment of water from a natural source is also advantageous in that the water employed for cooling the bosh can be utilized .in the condenser the latter being interposed ,betweenl the source and the furnace.

As shown in Fig. 1 the inlet port 1 of the condenser is connected by aisuitable pipe toy the blowing engine, and the outlet port 2 to.

the pipes 3 leading to the hot( blast stoves 4.

.The water inlet port 5 is connected yto the pumps or other suitablesource employed for oxes on the bosh. The 'Water or so' much. thereof as is required I flows up through the condenser or in opposi- `tion tothe direction of 'flow ofthe air, and is conducted by the pipe 6 to the bosh boxes.

"lVhile not limiting the invention. as regards the use of any suitable form or construction of'condenser, it is preferred to employ the l 11, etc.

construction herein shown. This condenser consists of an external shell .7, divided comar'tmentsor chambers, A, B, C, D, E, etc., by transverse annular partitions S,v 9, 10,

4Theend and one or more of the intermediate compartments aremade closed vby shells- 1 2, 1 3 and 1 4 extending respectively .from 'the upper head to the partition S, from partition 9 to partition 10 and from partition 11 to ,the lowerhead. The upper .chamber or compartment A is connected by clusters `of tubes 15 with the compartment C, which. in turn is 'connected by clusters of tubes 16 with the lower compartment E. These tubes` are securedv preferably by expanding into holes formed'through the partitions 8, 9, 10 and 11; and in order to facilitate the replacement of tubes of the lower series, the latter are made of an external diameter slightly less n than the internal diameter of the upper tubes, thus permitting the lower tubes to be passed up through theupper tubes.

` The ywater for cooling the tubes Hows into the lower end of the central shaft and spreads laterally around the tubes 1.5 and 16 extendf ing'across the compartments B and D. The

airpassing through these tubes is cooled andA a portionof thewater vapor will'be condensed on the inner walls of the tubes. In order to remove this condensed water, the tubes 15 and 1G project a short distance beyond the partitions 9 and 11, and such projecting ends fit loosely over nipples 17 formed on and secured in trays 18. Suflicient space is proesagera vided between the nipples and the inner walls ofv the tubes to permit water condensing in the tubes to ilow down into the trays. The nipples are formed with axial :o enings through which the'air willpass into t e compartments, C and E. The trays are preferably made insections which are supported in position by bolts, so that said trays can be removed and cleaned. Escape pipes 19 and 20 are provided for drawing off the water collected in the trays. These pipes 19 and 20 discharge into a receptacle 21 in the lower Y compartmenfrom which the water can be removed from time-to time by the blow-ofi' pipe 22, The receptacle in the lowercompartment'should be covered to prevent the air from takin up moisture from the water in the receptac e.

It is characteristic of my invention that after 'the condenser has been installed and the proper connections made, there will be very little, any, additional expense added ,to the operation of the furnace. It the water for the condenser -and boshes is 'drawn from i a river, the temperature of which varies slowly from 70 to 32o Fahr., and is lower than the average temperature of the season,

the moisture in the blast may be kept downv to 4 grains per cubic foot in summer and one grain per cubic foot in winter, the change from one extremeto the other being slow. Vihile without my improvement the moisture would vary frequently between four and ten grains in summer, and between onel and 'Seifen grains in winter. If lake water, which varis from 55o Fahr. in summer to 10Q Fahr.

in'winter be used, the moisture will be kept down to about two and one half grains in summer and one and one-half in winter. well water, which has,v approximately the same temperature the year around, be used, moisture can be kept down to about two grains.

Fig. 4' illustra-tes diagrammatically the ren sult of my improved method. as regards the elimination of moisture. The horizontal lines indicate grains Iof moisture per cubic foot of air, and the vertical lines indicate average atmospheric temperature during months indicated at the top of the figure.

The irregular or abruptly fluctuating line in- @more natural cooling' medium, n'lainta-ining the moisture at e slowly Vvarying percentage below such point of saturation oy :subjecting the all' to compression and to euch natural cooling medium and forcing theair imo ille furnace.

As an improvement in the art of smelting ore, the met/hell herein described, which consists in compressing the air, reducing the temperature by the eet-ion of a cooll j mediem having a ju'orn'ml temperature Home Fall. and thereby reducing the moisture i I l coment ol the aix', mgamfainij'xg suoli mos' f ture eontem :1t L .slowly varying' pereenme'e less (11u11 tllmt ofentretien al 'atmosphelle pressul'e um Ll'w temperature of Illu cooling medium emi l'ol'veg' im uil' imo the furnace,

.ln testimony xalm'eol', l have hereunto set. my lla-wl ALF RED ,STELNBAR'L 

